January 5 » Louis XV of France survives an assassination attempt by Robert-François Damiens, the last person to be executed in France by drawing and quartering, the traditional and gruesome form of capital punishment used for regicides.
May 6 » English poet Christopher Smart is admitted into St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics in London, beginning his six-year confinement to mental asylums.
June 23 » Battle of Plassey: Three thousand British troops under Robert Clive defeat a 50,000-strong Indian army under Siraj ud-Daulah at Plassey.
November 5 » Seven Years' War: Frederick the Great defeats the allied armies of France and the Holy Roman Empire at the Battle of Rossbach.
December 5 » Seven Years' War: Battle of Leuthen: Frederick II of Prussia leads Prussian forces to a decisive victory over Austrian forces under Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine.
December 31 » Empress Elizabeth I of Russia issues her ukase incorporating Königsberg into Russia.
Day of death November 20, 1774
The temperature on November 20, 1774 was about -1.0 °C. Wind direction mainly northeast. Weather type: geheel betrokken. Source: KNMI
January 21 » Abdul Hamid I becomes Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and Caliph of Islam.
March 31 » American Revolutionary War: The Kingdom of Great Britain orders the port of Boston, Massachusetts closed pursuant to the Boston Port Act.
May 10 » Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette become King and Queen of France.
June 2 » Intolerable Acts: The Quartering Act is enacted, allowing a governor in colonial America to house British soldiers in uninhabited houses, outhouses, barns, or other buildings if suitable quarters are not provided.
June 22 » The British pass the Quebec Act, setting out rules of governance for the colony of Quebec in British North America.
August 1 » British scientist Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen gas, corroborating the prior discovery of this element by German-Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele.
When copying data from this family tree, please include a reference to the origin: Kai Böttner, "Stambaum Bõttner", database, Genealogy Online (https://www.genealogieonline.nl/stambaum-bottner/P1626.php : accessed March 6, 2026), "Wilhelm Empen (1757-1774)".
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